Each day we see interesting sights. There are a lot of signs in English in Korca, but of course 99% are in Albania as you would expect. There are numerous "mini markets". Across the street from of the mini-markets is a "small-market". I do not know which one is really the smaller of the two. We mostly shop at the "super market" that is near our flat. There are two fruit and vegetable stands very near the super market that we shop at. Then just up the street from the super market is what I would call a "medium market". We refer to it as "Brothers" because two brothers own it. They speak a bit of English there, so we can ask for necessities like ice cream, french fries, chicken, etc. At the super market, Elisabet, I asked for help finding eggs this morning so they called for someone, who I think is the accountant, and she immediately understood me, replied in English, and led me to the eggs.
There are other interesting signs other that the signs in English. Take the one on the left for instance. We see this sign often if we take the tarmac road down our usual mountain hike rather than the footpath through the open area and small forest area.
As a college student imagine how you would have felt innocently walking along the road when you came to this sign. Would you have gone left or right? Obviously the lady in the picture above shunned going to class and headed straight to Korce Biarra for an afternoon in the sun. Perhaps she even met her lover there? If she had gone on to class, she could have stopped at this Fast Food restaurant across the street from the university after class. I am sure her sweet heart would have been waiting for her there!
Some of you may be wondering how we spend our free time. We usually teach from 9:00 AM until about 2:00 PM. Then we are left up to our devices. There are three things we do to entertain ourselves. First thing in the morning and often last thing at night we are at our communications center - well, really at our coffee table in the living room. This is where we use our electronic toys: laptop, iPad, smart phone, Kindles, camera, etc. In the morning we check email, facebook, Words with Friends, the news, the weather, DWTS results, etc. The last thing at night, you would likely find us snuggled on the couch watching one of our favorite TV series. We download episodes from itunes at a buck ninety-nine a pop. This is really not too bad if you consider the cost of cable TV in the US.
Most days we take a short walk in the morning and a long walk in the afternoon. We generally go up the mountain on one of two routes - tarmac or footpath. When we go up the footpath, we often are greeted by friendly four-footed creatures of three varieties - mostly sheep, but a few goats and dogs often lurk amongst the sheep. We have routes of many lengths to follow: from the crueling trek to the cross on top (one time) to the stroll up a short distance and then across the hill to the other side of town.
This is a shot of the local football stadium. It is supposed to be one of the best in Albania. It looks rather small to me - more like the Zizkov Vitoria stadium in Prague and not at all like Old Trafford. It is not close to Livestrong Sporting Park either, but a good venue for football at the Albanian level.
Returning to my signs in English theme, very near us is a shop selling material, drapes, etc. called "American Mode". Down the street is a clothing shop called "American Trend". There are other clothing stores called "Secret", "London Fashion" and "Queen Fashion". There are many smart shops that sell clothes and shoes. Albanian young ladies are very stylish. They however tend not just to wear stylish clothes, but stylish shoes. This would be fine, except that most of the streets and sidewalks are either: cobblestone, rock, in process of repair, rough tarmac, or worse. But they walk on as elegantly as possible in their spikes.
There are Taverna, Cafes and Baste all over town. I have even seen a couple signs stating "Bar and Grill". A taverna is a full service restaurant. A cafe is a place where coffee and other drinks are sold - no food. Restaurants specializing in pizza are ubiquitous in Korca. A baste is a place to bet on sports. Betting is very big here it seems. We also have three beer gardens not far from us - much closer than the university.
One really nice thing about Albania is that, whereas the Police might hassle a citizen, they (and everyone else) here are very nice and respectful of foreigners. This is just the opposite of Nigeria and other countries. At a fruit/veg stand, I did not have enough small change and tried to pay with a large bill. The guy implied (no real words exchanged) that he would take my small change and then said, "Tomorrow". So I went back the next day and tried to give him some more small change. Apparently I was totally confused, because when I held out my hand with various small coins, he just said, "ok, no problem" and took none of them. Hence I walked off wondering what really happened yesterday. I was just happy that there was "no problem".
We feel quite safe here - similar to Czech. I know we stick out here as Korca is a relatively small place without much tourism at all - a few bus tours from Greece bother to stop here. The people in the supermarket have always been nice to me whenever I try and pantomime the article I am looking for. It has seldom worked however, so they get the English speaking lady. I thought I did a good job this morning of pretending to crack open an egg and frying it, but my acting failed to register with any sane person in the store!
Next blog will discuss more about the changes that have taken place in the last twenty years going from the Soviet camp to the Western camp.
John
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